Can do’ attitude sees Upper Hutt woman honoured

Can do’ attitude sees Upper Hutt woman honoured

Being blind has often made it hard for Pam MacNeill (56) to get a job. But her determination to establish a career for herself, and at the same time help other disabled people find work, has paid off in an unexpected way.

Pam, who is from Upper Hutt, has been named as a finalist in the Spirit of Attitude category in the 2014 Attitude Awards. The national awards celebrate the excellence and achievements of Kiwis with a disability.

Pam (56), who was registered as blind at the age of nine, says she found school difficult. She left with no qualifications at 15 and things were compounded by being completely blind by her early twenties.

Pam did get a job at a supermarket, but struggled to hold down a job during the next 13 years. Like many others with vision loss, Pam had to persevere to overcome the attitudes of many potential employers, who felt her blindness was a barrier to work.

“I know and understand what it is like to be underestimated and marginalised, to the point where I doubted my own abilities,” she says now.

But Pam refused to give in and at 27 she enrolled at the University of Canterbury, going on to gain multiple qualifications in social work. It still took the Ministry of Social Development’s Mainstream Employment Programme, which helps people with disabilities into work, to help Pam get on the career ladder.

“Mainstream provided me with the foot in the door that I needed to demonstrate my own capabilities and have these recognised,” Pam says.

Pam eventually managed the Mainstream programme, holding the position for 18 years until 2010. Following her own difficult journey to gaining work, she says it was hugely gratifying to be in a position to assist other disabled people into employment.

Her infectious ‘can do’ attitude has seen Pam assist the disabled community in many other ways. She was a founding member of the NZ Guide Dog Society and the Canterbury Disabled Persons Assembly and an international representative to the World Blind Union, to name a few.

Today she continues to create new opportunities for herself and others, establishing her own consulting business and working at the Ministry of Health as a Quality Improvement Leader.

Pam will find out if she has won the award at a black-tie gala on World Disability Day, December 3 at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre.

There are eight categories in the 2014 Attitude Awards: Sport Performer of the Year, Courage in Sport, Artistic Achievement, Youth, Spirit of Attitude, the Attitude ACC Employer Award, Making a Difference award and the inaugural Attitude Junior Award. The overall winner of the Attitude ACC Supreme Award is selected from the category winners and a People’s Choice winner and a Hall of Fame inductee are also announced on the night.

Attitude Awards Trustee Dan Buckingham, a member of the elite national wheelchair rugby team the Wheel Blacks, says: “This is such an exciting time for everyone at Attitude Pictures because we find out who the finalists are. We have started travelling the country to film the finalists and even though this is the seventh year their stories continue to amaze us.”

Dan encourages everyone to visit AttitudeLive.com, an innovative web platform created by Attitude Pictures, in early November to see the short films of the finalists and to vote for the person most deserving of the coveted ‘People’s Choice Award.’

The Spirit of Attitude award is sponsored by Drake Medox. Other sponsors supporting the awards include: Invacare, Barfoot and Thompson, IHC Foundation, Westpac, Ministry of Health, Air New Zealand and Wayne Francis Charitable Trust.

Chief Executive of ACC Scott Pickering says ACC is proud to be principal sponsor of the awards for the seventh year, including sponsorship of the Attitude ACC Employer Award and the Attitude ACC Supreme Award.

"I'm really looking forward to this year's Attitude Awards, which are a significant event on New Zealand's calendar. Through celebrating excellence in the disability community and the important contributions made by New Zealanders with disabilities, the awards have the power to shift perceptions and to enhance lives."

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